Monday, August 15, 2011

Books 'n' Tunes:

Driving around with the top down on the Zed Drei the other day, running errands. After the sauna that was July, the weather felt wonderful. Temps in the high seventies, low humidity, and nothing even remotely cloudlike marring the sky.

The iPod in the Zed Drei served up "Fly Me Courageous" by Drivin' 'N' Cryin', Zeppelin's "Rock and Roll", and Van Halen doing "Panama", all of which are perfectly cromulent convertible-piloting songs. I was going to drive around the block again just to see what else would come up, but decided not to push my luck.

Then yesterday I sat on the porch finishing up Mark Steyn's After America (Thank you, Masked Reader!) before starting in on American Gods by Neil Gaiman. Do you know, I've never read a solo Gaiman novel before? Roomie says I'm in for a treat.

American Gods is a fantastic story. That type of thing is a shade out of my literary wheelhouse, but it was a great read. Makes you look at the standard side of the road tourist traps in a different light (even though you know it's just fiction).

American Gods is simply fantastic, though overall I like Gaiman's short fiction more than his novels.

Put me in the minority that didn't care at all for Neverwhere and only somewhat for Stardust, liking the movie better. IMO it took him a few books to learn how to novel without leaving half the job up to a comics artist.

I suppose American Gods could be described as 'good' ... if you like twisted, vile, sadistic horror dredged from the darkest corners of the subconscious. Personally, I don't. It may be a Hugo winner, but my reaction to it was TBAR* somewhere around page 50.

"American Gods" is awesome, and if you've been to any of the tourist trap locations that figure prominently, you'll never look at them the same way again. Mine was the House on the Rock in Wisconsin, although, probably owing to matters of space and pacing, Gaiman actually only describes a small part of what makes that place so weird and decrepit and fascinating all at the same time.

I had a hard time with American Gods. Probably because it was my first Gaiman book and I had no idea what was going on. Since reading, and liking, Neverwhere and Stardust I've known of a while I should give it another shot.